Groundspeak Portal

I have seen that some people "visit" their own waymark listings. Technically you did visit the spot to get the pictures and info about the area.  Is ths acceptable?

muffy53:

I have seen that some people "visit" their own waymark listings. Technically you did visit the spot to get the pictures and info about the area.  Is ths acceptable?

Oh sure. If it wasn't you wouldn't be able to.

muffy53:

I have seen that some people "visit" their own waymark listings. Technically you did visit the spot to get the pictures and info about the area.  Is ths acceptable?

I do it, and I encourage it! I have some personal rules about it depending on the category, but generally I log a visit to all my own waymarks. I put my personal thoughts or experiences there, as I believe the main waymark listing ought to be encyclopedic--no "I" or "we" or any of that (of course there are exceptions for a few categories).

Personally, I am not in favor visiting your own waymarks.  It is obvisous that you visited the waymark if you posted it.  If you need to add personal information to the waymark, you can just add a note.

My main reason for not visiting my waymarks is that it dilutes your statistics.  The relative number of waymarks and visits says something about your waymarking habits.  Vistiting your own waymarks changes the ratio in a way that does not give more information.  That is just my mathematician's way of looking at the issue.

With that being said, there is no rule against visiting your waymarks.  That which is not expressly forbiden is allowed.  We are tolerant of people using waymarking how they see fit.  I would not think any less about a person for visiting or not visiting their own waymarks.

muffy53:

I have seen that some people "visit" their own waymark listings. Technically you did visit the spot to get the pictures and info about the area.  Is ths acceptable?

When Waymarking started, Jeremy Irish stated that he feels that people should log Visits to their own Waymarks. That would be how they would be able to provide their personal opinions on the location.

The actual listing should be neutral and factual, the visit would be where the praises or criticism would be logged.

I Visit all of my own Waymarks with "Owner Visit" but everyone is free to do which ever is suitable to them. It's not like logging a "Found It" on your own cache, because to you it is not "hidden"

BQ

however, if you log all your own marks, the difference in your visits/posts is then the # of other peoples marks you've visited--i think im in the 2,200 other peole mark visit range.

This topic has been touched on many times.

Here is the definitive answer from the creator of waymarking. In fact you should read this entire thread to get a feel for waymarking in the "early days".  Long ago when we were all still carrying clubs and creating waymarks by the light from the fire the only way to filter your own waymarks out of a search was to have visited them them yourself. The search function has come a long long way.

BQ offers another great perspective here.

Here is an historical perspective from your truly and this historical perspective from 2006 isn't accurate anymore but still shares why I originally began visiting my own.

I used to log all of my own visits but it became cumbersome so I stopped and deleted the ones that I had done. Not because I feel there is something wrong with it but because it became a time waster for me when I could be posting another waymark or doing something else.

I have posted visits for some, but not most, of my own waymarks.

I have no issue at all posting visits to my own waymarks - for me, the experience of creating the waymark (taking the photos and the coordinates, doing the research, filling in the variables and the general description on the submit form) is very different than what I think of as the visit to the location (the personal experience of being there).

But to each his/her own.

By the way, it still blows my mind that Groundspeak chose to not allow multiple visits to a waymark. What on earth would be wrong with visiting a location more than once? Isn't it possible to have more than a single unique visit experience to a particular location at different times?

But I digress.

When it first came out in beta you could visit more than once. I can't remember why that functionality went away.

Maybe they didn't want logs like this.

Visited McDonald's again today. Today makes my 512th visit and my 492nd quarter pounder. Well on my way to the goal of 500.

TheBeanTeam:

When it first came out in beta you could visit more than once. I can't remember why that functionality went away.

I remember when you could visit more than once, too. And then suddenly, about the time the 2.0 release came out early in 2007, without discussion, the functionality went away.

TheBeanTeam:

Maybe they didn't want logs like this.

Visited McDonald's again today. Today makes my 512th visit and my 492nd quarter pounder. Well on my way to the goal of 500.

I don't see that such a log would have mattered to anyone, but if Groundspeak felt that some were abusing the visit feature, they could have stepped in selectively, rather than simply removing the ability to log multiple visits.

I wish there would have at least been some kind of an explanation for the change.

TheBeanTeam:

When it first came out in beta you could visit more than once. I can't remember why that functionality went away.

Maybe they didn't want logs like this.

Visited McDonald's again today. Today makes my 512th visit and my 492nd quarter pounder. Well on my way to the goal of 500.

Only 8 to go till you get a new ribbon {snicker}

BQ

chapterhouseinc:

however, if you log all your own marks, the difference in your visits/posts is then the # of other peoples marks you've visited--i think im in the 2,200 other peole mark visit range.

Just looking at your profile page, you have 4894 waymarks and 7207 visits.  Since I know that you post a visit on all your waymarks, I know you have visited 2310 waymarks that are not yours.  If I didn't know that you visit all your waymarks, then all I could tell is that you have visited between 2310 and 7207 waymarks that are not yours.  This is a lot less information.

With that said, any one person's stats are not going to affect how I, or anybody else, is going to participate in waymarking.  I am explaining how I see it in my "Rainman" kind of way.

Here are the original  threads from early 2006 in the old forums.

Log Your Own Waymark?
Should I Find My Own Waymark

i think the problem with the functionality--as on the other site (i wish the found it option would disappear when youve found a cache)--was that it kept adding to your stats. thus, the lock was the easy way out. why not make the visit total the number of unique marks, not the total number of visits.

in all, i have no problem with the 1 visit rule. ill just post a note with the other visit date --it is nice to know what day's pic folder to be looking in when digging out old pics.
(am i the only one that is a stickler for having the right log date? i see that everyone else just leaves it as 'todays date')


for thay guy's sake i hope he is visiting his own mark for that. he also needs to watch several movies about said obsession.

chapterhouseinc:

i think the problem with the functionality--as on the other site (i wish the found it option would disappear when youve found a cache)--was that it kept adding to your stats. thus, the lock was the easy way out. why not make the visit total the number of unique marks, not the total number of visits. in all, i have no problem with the 1 visit rule. ill just post a note with the other visit date --it is nice to know what day's pic folder to be looking in when digging out old pics. (am i the only one that is a stickler for having the right log date? i see that everyone else just leaves it as 'todays date') for thay guy's sake i hope he is visiting his own mark for that. he also needs to watch several movies about said obsession.

No, you're not the only date stickler. But I think the email notification you get when one of your marks is visited is the date the log was posted not the date configured in the log.

I even put the date of the photos in the photo caption because the site doesn't show the actual photo date normally.

cache_test_dummies:

I have posted visits for some, but not most, of my own waymarks.

I have no issue at all posting visits to my own waymarks - for me, the experience of creating the waymark (taking the photos and the coordinates, doing the research, filling in the variables and the general description on the submit form) is very different than what I think of as the visit to the location (the personal experience of being there).

But to each his/her own.

By the way, it still blows my mind that Groundspeak chose to not allow multiple visits to a waymark. What on earth would be wrong with visiting a location more than once? Isn't it possible to have more than a single unique visit experience to a particular location at different times?

But I digress.

No don't digress, you have a valid point. I too have been to some places and posted a visit and would rather post another than settle for writing a note. Really not a big deal, but still, if I had my druthers.

TheBeanTeam:

When it first came out in beta you could visit more than once. I can't remember why that functionality went away.

Maybe they didn't want logs like this.

Visited McDonald's again today. Today makes my 512th visit and my 492nd quarter pounder. Well on my way to the goal of 500.

Would that be in lbs.?

yes, i thought the notification date was today. then click the link to see the log, why is the date not obvious on there? [top right corner, like a cache log]

but then, isnt that the spot where the coords go, when you have log coords. (like a uhaul)

ok, you are looking at a waymark page. you see the nice map of its location.
you click 'post a log'. shazam, now your map looks like the whole world, why?
----
you are looking at a uhaul waymark. you see where it is posted. you click to post a log, your map resets. you compose your log (adding coords). sublit. now, on the upload pic page, why dont you see a map that has 1) the posted point and 2) the additional point you saw it at.

then, why cant we have a see all associated points map? so i can see the 'icon' where the uhaul was posted and little red push pins all the places it has been seen--with mine being green.

NOTE: uhauls is one that would warrant multiple visits (i have progressed to posting notes0. say its a design i like, or just want to share the fact that it gets around, then i have visited it again havent I? maybe it should be a revisit option--though itll look odd for me to revisit something several years before i visited, in the case of digging up/scanning old pics.

sorry, i started rambling, didnt i.

and yes, i sometimes wish i had put the date as the caption, but it was way too late by that point. MY BIGGEST DESIRE for reinstatement is the file name being included in the pic data.

old school: post mark. click link on approval message. right click, open default pic in new window (has filename/date label). click log, using pic date.

now: post mark. click approval link.
A-open rubbish bin. scroll to appropriate place, looking for pic to see date on. log visit.

B-[if i have visited nearby marks already] 'end', open nearest waymarks in new window. if i KNOW i was the last to visit, i can see the date, otherwise i must open the mark and scroll down for date on my log.

now, wasnt 'a' much more simple? then, when youve been to a place several times (you didnt get enough/good pics first visit, its a place you frequent, etc). and you need specific pics you know you have, you know exactly where to look for it.

this being said, IMHO:
using the file naming system (using XP file transfer from memory card) Date - # [ie: 9.12.9 - 063], sometimes adding other things for multiple cameras/people.

this helps with storing the millions of pics (what is the total number i have?) associated with WM, GC, life. names dont conflict. makes them sortable, in a tree i created before WM.

-WM-year-month-day [when there are a lot]
-GC-year-month
-life-family names-first names-year-month.

man. i rambled agin didnt i.

anyway. this function was great. but im the only one who used it. and now its gone.

i thought there was talk of some 'uber' upload thing--it would know the date setting on my camera from file data, and then display that on WM. but, then, you have to have the right date/time in your camera.

muffy53:

I have seen that some people "visit" their own waymark listings. Technically you did visit the spot to get the pictures and info about the area.  Is ths acceptable?

Sure, it's acceptable - entirely a matter of your personal preference.

Guess you got an "earful" on this question, eh?

Each of us chooses whether to do this based on a lot of things.  I've chosen NOT to, partly because I've got better things to do - like post another waymark, and because it seems pointless to me.  As has been mentioned, the value of doing this would be to make additional personal comments that wouldn't be appropriate in the primary description which should be kept objective in most categories.

When the new point system was proposed by Groundspeak, points for visiting another's waymark was going to be something like ten points, but visiting one's own would be only one point.  This leads me to the conclusion that it is possible to pull those statistics out.  So I would like the visit count changed to show this breakdown - visits to ones own waymarks and visits to other waymaks!  This would solve the problem of skewing the statistics.  I'd then prefer the ribbons to be tied to the visits to other waymarks.  Lumping them both together makes the stat meaningless, as far as I'm concerned.  I'd be more inclined to log visits to some of my own if this were the case.  As it is now, I want that number to reflect visits to other's waymarks.

If I could comment generally on what I have skim read through the posts, I am not particularly thrilled by "visiting" my own waymarks. I haven't got many, but so what? I had fun getting to them and sitting down writing them up. Good on you for having many waymarks and visits accrued. I doubt that I will get anywhere near the stats of others, but again, so what? I have had enjoyment with what I have done.

I view posting waymarks as my way of tugging at your shirtsleeve and calling out "come on over here, you have to see this, its really something". Like anything, what I see as salient may not be anything to get excited about by others. Ok, I can handle that. Visiting waymarks is a way of saying "I agree that this is worthwhile."

Taking geocaching as an example, "first to find" seems to be a badge of honour amongst cachers. At this time I have just one cache "hidden". It is an earthcache in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, Australia. Now I went there to the site and thought that this is definately an earthcache candidate and went on to write it up and it was accepted. Now I don't think that the geocaching community would like it if I logged my visit so as to claim ftf!

Alright, waymarking isn't geocaching, but is strongly related. Log your own visit if you want. I know I have visited all my couple of posted waymarks. That will do me.

Above all, take both waymarking and geocaching as good clean fun and recreation. A "dnf" may not be the desired outcome, but really, isn't it the getting outside with a goal in mind much of the sport? My 2c.

chapterhouseinc:

NOTE: uhauls is one that would warrant multiple visits (i have progressed to posting notes0. say its a design i like, or just want to share the fact that it gets around, then i have visited it again havent I? maybe it should be a revisit option--though itll look odd for me to revisit something several years before i visited, in the case of digging up/scanning old pics.

Not me, I'm not in favour of multiple Visited logs on any category, including U-Haul's.

A Visit is an accomplishment in life. Revisiting is not the same. One does not lose their virginity more than once. A better way to put it is that the first time someone gets married they really don't know what to expect. If they happen to get married again, it's not such a surprise. The differences are subtle but in the end, the first time is unique compared to any that follow.

As for U-Haul's... I always envisioned the truck graphics much like sports cards. There is a series and you try to check them all off the list. Getting a 'double' does not change the checklist. Either you claimed it or you didn't.

BQ

i have posted several multivisits to uhauls--as you never know where you will see it, and some of them do get around quite a bit...

chapterhouseinc:

i have posted several multivisits to uhauls--as you never know where you will see it, and some of them do get around quite a bit...

I think you might mean that you have posted one visit and sometimes have posted additional notes for other times that you've found another truck with the same SuperGraphic. To the best of my knowledge it is not possible to log a Visit on any single listing more than once. Meaning that any notes do not increase your stats.

BQ

yes, that is the only way to log a multivisit is it not?

yes, but you are limited to one note per wymark every 24 hour period. so if you are retro visiting your disney visits from the 1990s, 2005, 2007, and 2009 you must wait 4 days to properly log all of them.

Sounds good to me - I realize that you go to get the information initially, but chances you go agian to some of them.